The Very Imposing Taj Mahal.
Editor’s note: Indee Nemani worked on Rain of Petals. He currently lives in the Middle East. He travels well and is a good sharer.
Here’s his video…and his incredible zoom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTkkqwtLLh0&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Meet the descriptively named Parachute Colorado. The origin story:
See? That’s pretty cool. Later Wiki adds:
Parachute Creek was named such when the original surveyors mapped the area.
Alright, that’s in the same spirit of the first thing. It sure does make Somebodyisfromhere.com wonder how long parachutes have been around. At least, how long have the been prominent enough to name things after?
Wiki then changes its story faster than a teenager in an interrogation room.
Well, what the hell are you talking about Wiki? Pick a story, man. Focus.
In 1908, the town’s name changed to Grand Valley in order to lure travelers. The name was changed back in the 80s when they returned to their senses.
A reminder when the first Sherlock came out Somebodyisfromhere.com wrote a travel review of Baker Street. That can be found here:
http://somebodyisfromhere.com/blog2/2011/05/23/baker-street/
Here’s an article from a guest of the site Olivia Lennox. She writes about the UK. It figures…a real bonafide girl comes to the site and Somebodyisfromhere.com didn’t even have time to tidy up. Enjoy!
The UK in Winter
by Olivia Lennox
Ever since The Holiday was released way back in 2006, I’ve been hankering to head over to the UK – well, Cameron Diaz made it look so gorgeous wrapped up in her knits while strutting around the countryside and falling in love with Jude Law!
And ok, while most people are jetting off to someplace warm and sunny in the winter months, here at somebodyisfromhere we’re embracing the notion of grabbing one of those last minute cruise deals and sailing over to the UK. We know it won’t be sunny, we’re sure there will be rain and maybe a bit of snow, but at this time of year we’ll avoid the hordes of tourists and see the country at its prettiest. So without further ado, let’s get on with discovering the place…
London
Ah, the home of HRH Queen Elizabeth – Buckingham Palace. On a misty winter’s morning with snow dusting its roof and the statues out front, this place looks absolutely stunning. Plus there’s hardly anyone else around so taking the perfect snapshot is a cinch.
Onwards from here, it’s time for a bit of fun at the Somerset House ice rink. It’s staged by Tiffany & Co so you can expect all-out glam. The busiest times are from dusk onwards so go during the day if you’d like a bit of space to skate around. If you’re not skating you can always sit back, relax and watch the merriment from the comfort of the bar, or wander around the Tiffany Shop where you’ll be able to find delicious artisan chocolates from master chocolatier, Cocomaya. We know which we’d rather be doing!
Just like a trip to New York isn’t complete without a trip to Broadway, a holiday in London isn’t complete without seeing a show in the West End. If you’ve got kids in tow then Matilda the Musical is the one for you – it’s showing at the Cambridge Theatre until 21st October 2012 so there’s plenty of time to book and plan that trip.
Edinburgh
From London, hop on a train at Kings Cross Railway Station (or Euston if you want a sleeper train) and journey north for around four hours until you reach the Athens of the North, Edinburgh. If you thought London was cold be prepared for it to get even colder! However, if you can bare the chill, this beautiful city is a definite must-see on a trip to the UK.
For a truly luxurious treat book a room at The Glasshouse – a five-star hotel within walking distance of Princes Street. Beds are huge, bathrooms sumptuous, and the breakfast to die for. If you go for the continental expect mouth-watering offerings like smoked salmon and cream cheese, miniature pastries, and smoothies packed with fruit. It’s a help-yourself affair so it should keep you going until dinner time.
In between meals, wander up cobbled street of The Royal Mile and have a look around Edinburgh Castle which sits high above the town perched on volcanic rock. You’ll probably need another day to enjoy a walk up Arthur’s Seat, but Calton Hill should be do-able. And it’s well worth the walk as up on the top you’ll find several monuments and buildings including the Robert Burns monument and the City Observatory. Make it up here for sunset and you’ll be in for a real treat – especially if it’s a clear day. Then amble back down into town and enjoy the best coffee in town at Artisan Roast on Broughton Street.
Countryside
If you’re hankering for a bit of countryside you’ll be spoilt for choice in the UK. But one of the most picturesque parts of the country has to be Yorkshire. With its moors, dales, lush wooded valleys, and old seaside charm, it’s up to you what sort of countryside you fancy. For an old school seaside retreat head to Whitby. Here you’ll find tales of Dracula and plenty of gothic ambience. Meanwhile, the cool hippy town of Hebden Bridge tucked away in the Pennines is perfect for café culture and hilly walks. If, however, you’re a Harry Potter fan make sure you head to Goathland. The train station here is Hogsmeade station in the film and kids of all ages will enjoy a trip on a steam train on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway.
(Somebodyisfromhere.com allows himself a 30 min break from studying. Let’s see what he can write.)
Hawaii has been in movies before just not like this. Historically, it has just been an excuse to put the likes of Kristin Bell in a bikini.
And Somebodyisfromhere.com is eternally grateful.
Kristen Bell is not in the Descendants and therefore she is NOT wearing a bikini in the movie.
The Descendants promises a different kind of Hawaii. In fact, Clooney’s character explains it to us in the first scene. He says, people from the rest of the country think people who live in Hawaii are on a permanent vacation. He then articulates that this is a falsity and that they have the problems everybody else does. The camera pans out to show Clooney in a hospital room where his wife lies in a coma after a boating accident.
The Descendants is a hard movie to explain (Heck, it’s a hard movie to say which is something Somebodyisfromhere.com learned when his friends kept asking him “What is The Sentence?”). Of course, you wouldn’t expect anything less from director Alexander Payne.
Payne has always had a unique storytelling ability. It’s sort of a dark humor that focuses on a reality that somehow resonates. He pulled this off most popularly in Sideways.
Sideways had some bleakness in it but, in the end, it was always grounded in the fact that it was probably going to end in a wedding. The Descendants, on the other hand, is grounded in a Coma. And infidelity.
What makes The Descendants real is that it recognizes that just because your wife is in a coma doesn’t mean that everything that preceded that event was wonderful.
Take the infidelity. Clooney’s character learns that his wife was sleeping around on him from his daughter played by Shailene Woodley. From there father, 17 year old daughter, her boy friend, and a 10 year old daughter go on a search for the other man.
Of course this is a journey and like all cinematic journeys it is as much about finding the intended goal as it is about finding out about oneself.
The father is a workaholic lawyer. His relationship with his wife was strained and he was, as he described, the backup parent. As the movie progresses you might imagine how that changes.
Clooney and Woodley are together frequently. Somebodyisfromhere.com hadn’t seen anything she was in previously but she was terrific in this movie and he looks forward to seeing more of her.
The Descendants shows viewers there is more to Hawaii than meets the eye. It also shows that there is also more to Clooney. He can be a family man, too. And sure, he still plays a lawyer. But this time he gets to wear a Hawaiian Shirt.
(time’s up. pens down.)
“tis the season for Somebodyisfromhere.com to be busy as hell. School. Work. You name it. To make up for it, though, he’ll post a couple of things from guests in the upcoming days. He’ll post pictures from India and a story from the UK. Don’t feel shy about sending your stuff his way. crodgers@somebodyisfromhere.com
Having an island name in the Mainland is pretty cool. It’s not inexplicable like Grand Island, Nebraska. It’s just sorta quirky like giving your child a name that doesn’t match child’s ethnicity.
That’s the coolness of Aloha, Oregon.
Or, at least, it could have been. See Aloha decided to go a different way with it. They disappointingly pronounce the town, “Ah-lowwa rather than Ah-lo-ha.” By disappointing, Somebodyisfromhere.com means that it’s a waste. It’s like living in a town called Awesome and calling it A-wee-so-may.
The town name predates Hawaii’s becoming one of the good guys, so it is likely that the town name has nothing to do with the word as we know it today. Still, it’s origins are unknown. Best guess? “In 1983 Joseph H. Buck claimed that his uncle, the first postmaster, Julius Buck, named the office “Aloah” after a small resort on Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin. Supposedly the last two letters were transposed by the Post Office Department during the application process.“
Somebodyisfromhere.com went to a Zombie walk in Asbury Park to learn that the town itself is undead (compliment).
Somebodyisfromhere.com met up with a friend and their friends. He had a lot of time to check his phone. Unfortunately that led to his updating his phone throughout the night:
October 22 at 3:54pm via mobile: At a zombie situation in asbury.
Editor’s note: Asbury Park has an annual Zombie walk. In 2010 it set a Guinness World Record for most zombies in one place with over 4,000 in attendance.
People put a lot of thought into their costumes. Some kids would walk around dragging their feet. Some zombie brides. Makeup stands supplied people with blood.
Somebodyisfromhere.com didn’t dress up per se. He kind of went halfway. He wore a blazer and the most tattered hoodie he owns. He has always found that most Halloween villains are well dressed if not unkempt.
He never did get around to adding the blood. It just didn’t happen. But, hey, he’s naturally pale and that’s sorta undead.
October 22 at 6:33pm: Holy crap. Asbury is awesome.
Editor’s note: Somebodyisfromhere.com went to college near Asbury Park. Asbury was a town known as where Bruce Springsteen would occasionally perform. It also had a reputation for being kind of Camden on the Sea (not compliment). Indeed, the most famous thing about the town was its creepy mural.
Asbury used to also have cheap beer. Somebodyisfromhere.com had a crappy car (but awesome) so he could go in town to buy beer without looking too strange. The lady behind the counter once told him, “All you white boys who come in here look the same, I always recognize you though, because of your big eyes.” Somebodyisfromhere.com didn’t and doesn’t especially know what that means. His eyes are spectacular. Sometimes they are green. Sometimes they are blue (hey, that’s kind of like a mood ring!)
Somebodyisfromhere.com had a friend who rented a college house in Asbury who was held up at gunpoint.
Somebodyisfromhere.com hadn’t been in town in a few years.
Last weekend, he went in town only to find that it was delightful. The town always had a fairly famous convention center. Today, the town isn’t 100%, but the changes have been remarkable. There is a pretty nice boardwalk. There are bars along the boardwalk. Bagel joints too.
The downtown is popping up as well. There are fancy condos and another strip of restaurants.
October 22 at 7:15pm: I see a bunch of obey things. Nice message to go with a zombie walk.
Editor’s note: Shepard Fairey is the guy that created the Obama Hope poster during his historic campaign.
He recently has set his sights on Asbury Park. Some of his stuff says, “Obey.”
October 22 at 10:51pm: I’m going to Start live facebooking: Next bar gives a slice of pizza with every beer. I dont want to go there, inasmuch, as I want to marry it.
Editor’s note: Ignore the premise, of course. All Facebook is live, but Somebodyisfromhere.com was feeling more bloggy than Facebooky.
Somebodyisfromhere.com went to several bars. He started at the Annex and its twin, The Brickwall, before going to some place whose name escapes him. The evening culminated at Johnny Macs. Johnny Macs twitter page reads: A kick Ass authentic Irish Pub with a cool vibe great atmosphere and phenomenal staff. Ice cold beers, delicious drinks and free pizza open to close.
Agreed.
October 23 at 12:24am: I’m Hanging out with a white bald (shaved) man named Tyrone.
Editor’s note: That’s weird sober, right?
October 23 at 1:12am: Windmill!
Editor’s note: There’s an iconic hot dog joint in Central Jersey. The main one looks like you’d expect. The others don’t.
The Windmill in nearby Long Branch
At 29 years old Somebodyisfromhere.com’s longest and most fulfilling relationship was with his 1993 Buick LeSabre. He loved that beast and they were at their best when they worked as a food delivery person.
Maybe that’s why he liked 30 Minutes or Less. This action comedy centers around a pizza delivery man who loves his old beat up Mustang more than any human being rationally should.
That’s about where their similarities end. In the movie, the lead character (played by Jesse Eisenberg) goes out to deliver a pizza only to find two men dressed as apes who eventually strap a bomb to his chest in order to motivate him to rob a bank.
The apes (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) want pizza man to rob a bank so that they can use the loot to pay for a hitman to knock off one of their fathers so they can use the inheritance to open up an illegal business. Well, ok.
The movie isn’t as complex as all that sounds. It’s really about two normal people thrust into a stress filled situation and two morons who hatch up the scheme.
Eisenberg’s roommate is played by Aziz Ansari (hilarious on Parks and Rec). They squabble early in the film because one likes the other’s sister. The fight never really came off as all that real, but of course, the emergency brings them back together.
Eisenberg puts a little space behind his normal slightly-more-talented-than-Michael-Cera neurotic persona. He’s a bit cooler this time. He drives fast. He smoke weed.
Danny McBride does his Danny McBride thing. You either like it or hate it, but you know what you are getting into after already seeing it in Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express, and Eastbound & Down. Nick Swardson, meanwhile, somehow landed a prominent billing despite a career as that guy you recognize in bit parts of comedies but never found particularly funny (Reno 911!, Blades of Glory)
The director is Ruben Fleisher who worked with the lead actor previously in the awesome Zombieland and who has apparently rode Eisenberg all the way to landing a cool sounding gig directing an upcoming LA Cops/Gang movie starring Sean Penn, Josh, Brolin, Ryan Gosling, and Emma Stone called Gangster Squad.
30 Minutes or Less is the latest of a string of R rated comedies. It’s a welcome trend. 30 Minutes isn’t the best of them, but it’s solid. It’s safe to say you won’t forget it about it in 30 minutes. Or less.
You might not be surprised that there is town named Climax. People name places some strange things. You might be surprised there are several of them.
Georgia:
Kansas:
Minnesota:
Climax, founded in 1896, was named after a chewing tobacco company
Pennsylvania:
And in Michigan we find out Climax has a climax; it’s located at Main and Maple.
